I'm pleased to inform you that my band The Snakeoil Rattlers have just confirmed with the promoters a cracking show opening for Ours frontman and friend of the late Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Gnecco. The show will be on Wednesday 18th November at the Underbelly which is underneath the uber-trendy Zigfrid bar in Hoxton (11 Hoxton Square, London N1 6NU, Tel: 020 7613 1988). The closest tube is Old Street. Also on bill is Cape Fear (Stereophonics type rock) and two another great bands. The Rattlers will be on stage at 7pm.

The admission price for the show is £8 but if you email me (info@snakeoilrattlers.co.uk) or just reply to this, your name I'll get you in for the special Snakeoil Rattlers irregular price of £6 which is a pretty great deal for the line-up you'll be seeing.

I've also been informed that A&R representatives from Sony will be in attendance along with a few hotshot agents. This may be a career breaking opportunity for the Rattlers so please try and show your support. Remember we're on at 7pm sharp right before Jimmy Gnecco.

Hope to see you all there and remember to email me if you want to be on the cheap ticket list.

Ticket sales for Celtic Connections 2010 are going well, with festival fans snapping up tickets faster than ever before. Top selling shows so far include The Chieftains with Ry Cooder (which has only a few remaining tickets), Natalie Merchant & Lúnasa and the popular Transatlantic Sessions concerts.

Celtic Connections 2010, which runs from 14th – 31st January and is sponsored by ScottishPower, was launched on 20th October, and since then Artistic Director Donald Shaw has added a host of top acts to the bill. Programme additions include:

Acclaimed bluegrass acts Blue Highway and Alecia Nugent will celebrate the 40th anniversary of US label Rounder Records in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 19th January.

Glasgow-based indie label Chemikal Underground also celebrates a milestone at the 2010 festival with an all-star line-up assembling for its 15th birthday bash at the O2 ABC Glasgow. The line-up, which has just been announced, features label founders and former members of The Delgados Alun Woodward (aka Lord Cut Glass) and Emma Pollock, as well as Aidan Moffat, Bill Wells, Adrian Crowley, Zoey Van Goey plus some special guests. The night also sees the first performance by The Unwinding Hours, a new outfit born from the ashes of Aereogramme, featuring Craig B and Iain Cook.

A string of high profile names have been added to the bill for Way to Blue – The Songs of Nick Drake with Teddy Thompson, Robyn Hitchcock, Krystle Warren, Lisa Hannigan and Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch joining Danny Thompson, Vashti Bunyan, Green Gartside to pay tribute to the late musical icon at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 20th January.

The frontman of the Mercury-nominated avant-pop outfit Guillemots, Fyfe Dangerfield, showcases music from his debut solo release Fly Yellow Moon (due out in January) with a gig on 20th January, with support coming from Oxford band Stornoway.

Two new shows have been added to the programme at City Halls, with Portuguese band Deolinda taking to the stage on 29th January, and a triple bill featuring Grace, Hewat & Polwart, Diana Jones and Rachel Harrington on 30th January.

The Celtic Connections Opening Concert, which sees Jim Sutherland’s True North Orchestra perform excerpts from the composer’s epic Aisling’s Children, will also feature short taster performances by artists appearing later in the festival, including Maura O’Connell, Kathleen MacInnes, Carlos Núñez, Lau and The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland.

BBC Radio Scotland’s Iain Anderson will be joined by an eclectic mix of local figures for the festival’s series of lunchtime discussions, including Pat Kane and Ricky Ross, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Jack McConnell and Duncan Bannatyne.

Listings updates: The Dan Tyminski Band will no longer perform at City Halls on 30th January, however Dan Tyminski will still appear in both nights of Transatlantic Sessions. Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams will now perform at the O2 ABC Glasgow on Wednesday 27th instead of Òran Mór on Thursday 28th

Celtic Connections 2010 runs from Thursday 14th to Sunday 31st January and comprises approximately 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, workshops, free events and late night sessions taking place over 18 days in 14 venues across Glasgow.

The focal point of Celtic Connections is the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, where every available space is utilised during the festival, from workshops in the foyers to performances by world-class artists in the Main Auditorium. Elsewhere in Glasgow, venues such as O2 ABC Glasgow, The Tron, Òran Mór, The Classic Grand, City Halls and festival fans’ favourite the Old Fruitmarket will all play host to Celtic Connections events, whilst the legendary Celtic Connections Festival Club will be held in the The Art School.

Celtic Connections 2010 tickets are on sale now and can be booked: Online www.celticconnections.com By phone 0141 353 8000

quote:HEADWATER

November UK tour

18th

The Bluebell Inn, Saffron Walden, Essex

19th

The Maze, Nottingham

21st

The Blue Coconut, Blakewood, Sussex

Hearing Headwater is like listening to the West Coast of Canada in song. Freewheeling, fierce, sentimental and sexy, the Vancouver, B.C., quartet has earned its reputation as one of the finest acoustic roots groups around the old-fashioned way.

Since forming in 2001, the group has logged in thousands of kilometres criss-crossing Western Canada and playing to anyone and everyone willing to give it some love. With hooks, driving rhythms, adventurous steel guitar and mandolin solos, and beautiful three-part vocal harmonies all featured in tight, concise under four-minute songs, they found fans fast. Or they roped them in at first, street busking before gigs rather than hanging out waiting for crowds to come to them.

For those country music enthusiasts and historians seeking rare material, BACM Records has proven itself an invaluable source of supply.

With several years production to its' credit, the BACM now boasts a catalogue of almost 300 cds, presenting a wide cross-section of country music's diverse realms - from old timey to Grand Ole Opry acts, fiddle bands to western swing, and singing cowboys to country comedians alongside mixtures of hillbilly, bluegrass and gospel, with the recording sources taking in Nashville, Dallas and Chicago, the East and West Coasts and several other U.S. locations (not forgetting several artists that recorded in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada!).

Equally varied are the artists and take in both famous names as well as those possibly only qualifying for a footnote in the history of country music but all enjoying, at one time or another, regular record releases - now revived and presented to new audiences eager to take a trip in the music's past.

Among the recent releases, there's been collections from artists who would be well known to country music fans, including The Browns, June Carter, Cowboy Copas, Jimmy Dean, Webb Pierce, Jean Shepard, Sue Thompson, Merle Travis, Ernest Tubb, Justin Tubb, Wilburn Brothers and Tex Williams while Gene Autry, Monte Hale, Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers are among those who developed their popularity via Hollywood and the Singing Cowboys, alongside the relatively unknown Deuce Spriggins, ex-member of Spade Cooley's western swing band, also frequently seen on screen. Hugh Cross and Buell Kazee are just two artists from the 1920s and '30s, Jimmy Long, Bob Miller, Eddie Miller and Leon Payne are among the songwriters who have cds available and the international recording scene is represented by such as the LeGarde Twins, Tim McNamara and Reg Lindsay, all hailing from "down under". Cowboys and Western Songs also have a healthy showing with such exponents as the Jules Allen, Bar X Cowboys, Art Dickson, Tex Fletcher, Oklahoma Ed Moody and Jimmy Newill & his Texas Ramblers.

In addition, BACM has several various artists compilations on offer, ranging from country music to be found in various record vaults (inc. 4 Star, Capitol, Columbia, King, MGM, Mercury, OKeh, Panachord and Vocalion) to regional areas ("Southeastern Swing Bands" and "South of the Border"). There's also a number of value-for-money, low priced samplers, providing excellent tasters for record buyers wanting to seek out artists and bands hitherto unfamiliar to them.

BACM release three cds each month: the next releases - set for early December - are compilations by Merle Travis & Tex Ann, Betty Amos and The Tennessee Ramblers.

BACM Records was created by collector/archivist David Barnes and stalwart country musician Brian Golbey, and is an offshoot of Barnes’ British Archive of Country Music, a vast museum of around 300,000 country music recordings and artefacts that matured out of his exhaustive 60 year personal collection. The archive has a database with 30,000 artists & musicians on file plus over 450,000 Country song titles and is available to the media, record, TV & film producers, serious collectors and university students.

The archive has not only played a small part in the conservation of these recordings but hopefully, says Barnes, “will also prove enjoyable and educational to all those that hear the music”. It was such objectives that led to the creation of the BACM label.

Each cd has 25, or more, tracks and comes with booklets featuring biography information penned by much respected country music historians, journalists and writers. All cds are available from the British Archive of Country Music, post free, and each cost £10.00 (UK), $16.00 (USA) or €14.00 (Europe).

A full listing of the BACM titles can be found on the website http://bacm.users.btopenworld.com. Catalogues are available from the British Archive of Country Music (address below) - please enclose a first class stamp when requesting a catalogue.

Chance McCoy is a West Virginia champion fiddler, and Allison Williams played banjo for several years in the Forge Mountain Diggers, with Freight Hoppers fiddler David Bass. Chance and Allison have been performing together since their debut on BBC television in January, live in London at the Folk America series. You can see video of that performance (with a backing band) here: http://youtube.com/allisonwilliamsmusic

To book them in your town, contact:

info@allisonwilliamsmusic.com You can also listen to them on their MySpace pages:

Hi Derek - hope you'r well
Celtic Connections - yeah, what a great event although urban Glasgow is hardly North Carolina!! Got my tickets already for Tom Russell, Slaid Cleaves and the awesome Daryl Anger/Mike Marshall. Its these guys I was hoping to see this year at Merlefest. No Rhiannon either.
Can't hang around for Ry Cooder & Chieftains. Shame.
Aly & Jerry Douglas are taking the Transatlantic Sessions down to Manchester the following week. Booked to see them there. Should be a blast as ever.
Nick

Doing good, Nick. Hopefully life is sweet on the island your way. Cool on Darol Anger and Mike Marshall. Those two are amazing together. The Cheiftains and Ry Cooder would be awesome, but anytime you can see Jerry and Aly get-together on the Transatlantic deal and do their thing, it is sweet as well. Pass on a howdy for Darol and JD is you talk to them. Have fun.

Gary Moore at Islington Academy. Great to be able to see him in such an intimate venue, pity about the support act though! The pennies can't stretch to another midweek London trip though. Didn't read this until this morning as it was in my spam, tix went on sale Friday 13th, so good luck as it is a small venue.

PLANET ROCK XMAS PARTY - 02/12/09
We are absolutely delighted to announce that the legendary GARY MOORE will be headlining a very special Planet Rock Xmas Gig on 2nd December at the O2 ISLINGTON ACADEMY.
Joining Moore as his special guests will be Justin Hawkins' latest outfit Hot Leg. The former Darkness front man and his band bring their high energy 'man rock' to the O2 Academy for one night only. Spandex and air-guitar at the ready!
Finally, kick starting our show will be fine new rockers the Hovercraft Pirates.
We're charging a bargain £18 for tickets this year literally to cover our costs, but for that you will get three great bands and a packed evening of hard-rocking fun.
Here are the details:
Date: 2nd December
Venue: O2 Academy Islington
Doors: 7pm
Price: £18
Tickets On Sale: Friday 9am
CLICK HERE TO BUY:http://www.seetickets.com/see/event.asp?filler1=see&n|showname=coming&a
mp;showname=planet%20rock%20xmas%20gig&filler2=&filler3=id1prock&am
p;orderby=date

A show nearly a year away with tickets bought in a pre-sale (bought I'm guessing as soon as they went live) and you only managed row 16. Call me a cynic but what do you reckon that the first 15 are being held back so the O2 can charge silly money for them?

It's hard being a real fan when you can't get the best seats. It's all wrong.

A show nearly a year away with tickets bought in a pre-sale (bought I'm guessing as soon as they went live) and you only managed row 16. Call me a cynic but what do you reckon that the first 15 are being held back so the O2 can charge silly money for them?

It's hard being a real fan when you can't get the best seats. It's all wrong.

I hear where you are coming from Barry ... but to be honest ... I am pretty happy to be down on the floor just 16 rows from the stage in a 20,000 seat stadium ... I have only ever managed to get seats up in the balconies previously ... and you need a pilots licence to fly in some of those seats

A show nearly a year away with tickets bought in a pre-sale (bought I'm guessing as soon as they went live) and you only managed row 16. Call me a cynic but what do you reckon that the first 15 are being held back so the O2 can charge silly money for them?

It's hard being a real fan when you can't get the best seats. It's all wrong.

I hear where you are coming from Barry ... but to be honest ... I am pretty happy to be down on the floor just 16 rows from the stage in a 20,000 seat stadium ... I have only ever managed to get seats up in the balconies previously ... and you need a pilots licence to fly in some of those seats

Yeah I've seen those seats up there and thought "not on my life and especially without a harness". Row 16 is pretty good and means you don't have to look up or keep looking left and right all the time.

For 3 months I worked as a ticket agent and it's a lot to do with the seating allocation for that ticket outlet. Some have better than others. You just need to find the one that has the best. I know in theatres the first 2 or 3 rows are held by the venue. With a couple of seats put aside for guests. A few years back I got 4th row centre tickets for Skynyrd by going to the Hammersmith Odeon box office and the on-sale was about 2 weeks before (the best ticketmaster had was off to the side somewhere). Plus because I paid by cash I wasn't screwed by a booking fee either. For the Hammi it's a little bit different now as HMV run it and have their own online booking system (so as a rule you should get better tix than Ticketmaster).

It's easy for me to do this as I live in central London, but from personal and professional experience in the trade here's a few rules. If you can go to the venue and pay cash then do it (just be aware that sometimes the booking office doesn't open until 10am though). For theatre tix (unless they have a special deal with the venue. Back in the day Ticketmaster used to have deals with about 12 in London.) the booking agent will charge you a 25% service charge plus postage. So have a look on the theatre website to see if they have their own booking system to get around this. Also remember that the concert venue or theatre box office probably has it's a telephone line so call them as they may be able to sell you tickets over the phone. They can only say "no" at worst and they're normally very nice as they're bored and it's a change to talk to someone. If the venue has it's own online booking system then use that as you've got more chance of getting better tickets. Some venues have connected booking systems and will not charge a booking fee. In London you can go to the Jazz Cafe booking office and buy tix for all HMV venues in London (The Forum, The Borderline, The Garage, The Hammi (The Dominion used to sell tix for here too, but I'm not sure if that's still the case)) and the same if you go to an O2 Academy venue (Islingtion, Brixton, Shepherds Bush. Not sure if they do the O2 Arena yet). But lastly, if like Colin you get a presale for your favourite band, forget all the above and just bite the bullet as you know you'll hate yourself if you don't. Hell I've done it, and wasn't even upset when a guy at the Beacon told be he got his 3rd row tic from the venue box office. Sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry.

I know this is a little bit short notice side but I thought I'd let you know that my band The Snakeoil Rattlers will next be playing on Tuesday 8th December at South of the Border which is in the basement of El Paso (350-354 Old Street, London, EC1V 9NQ, Telephone: 020 7739 4202, www.elpasohoxton.com/sotb.php). The closest tube is Old Street . The evening starts at 8pm and will also feature Jonnygonehome and JD Smith. Admission is £5 but if you print out the attached below and bring it along you'll get in for £4. We're on stage at 8.45pm.

quote:Dan Baird at the Borderline Monday 26 July. No support - early start, accordthing to his website. Think I may need to be there. No listing on Mean Fiddler site yet.

I've seen Dan Baird approx 10 times since 1987 and he never plays a dissapointing set. Always in a great mood and enjoying being on stage. Size of the crowd doesn't bother him. Saw him a few months ago in a poorly filled small club in the netherlands and it was one of the best shows i saw him play. He will return to that venue later this year and i surely will be going again.
Go see him if you can! I'm not sure if the guitarist of Jason & The Scorchers, W. Hodges (spelling?), is still in his band but he made a great addition. But apparantly there's a Jason & The Scorchers reunion tour as well...

quote: - hopefully some nice twin guitar action with Sam and Simon Law

Indeed we did! Awesome stuff - if you get a chance to catch these guys live do so - rarer than hen's teeth over here to get to see two guitarists who can play together / off each other at all, even more so two who are able to do it so well.

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